SPPH 500 (DL) – Analytic Methods in Epidemiological Research

Course Syllabus January 2015

DAYS & TIMES: Days/times of face-to-face meeting will be emailed directly to you as well as
appear on the course website.

LOCATION: Location for face-to-face meetings will be emailed directly to you as well as
appear on the course website.

INSTRUCTOR: Mike Marin

EMAIL: mmarin@stat.ubc.ca, marin.mike@gmail.com

OFFICE: The School of Population and Public Health, The University of British Columbia
Room 263, SPPH Building

TELEPHONE: 604-827-1596 (UBC)

OFFICE HOURS: Office hours will be on-line and scheduled by the TA once the course begins

TEACHING ASSISTANTS: The teaching assistant (TA) for this course will be introduced at
the beginning of the course. The TA will hold weekly on-line tutorials as well as be available to
offer support over email and Wimba (on-line classroom).

COURSE OVERVIEW:

SPPH 500 DL is a 3 credit graduate course. It is an introduction to regression modeling of

epidemiologic data to broaden analytic skills acquired in previous courses. This course covers
statistical techniques commonly used in epidemiology and health services research, such as
linear, logistic and Poisson regression as well as survival analysis (Cox regression).

Greater emphasis will be placed on conceptual understanding rather than computational ability.
In other words, formulating the proper model to fit will be considered more important that the
actual fitting of the model using software.

PREREQUISITES: SPPH 400, SPPH 502 as well as working knowledge of statistical software.

COURSE TEXTBOOK:

Vittinghoff E, Glidden D, Shiboski S and McCulloch “Regression Methods in Biostatistics”,

Springer 2005

Holford T “Multivariate Methods in Epidemiology”, Oxford University Press, 2002.

* I also include a set of notes on course topics

SOME ADDITIONAL REFERENCES:

1. Rosner B “Fundamentals of Biostatistics”, 5th Ed, Duxbury, 200

2. Katz MH, “Multivariable Analysis, A practical Guide for Clinicians”, Cambridge University
Press, 2006

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to:

• Relate regression methods to appropriate types of epidemiologic data
• Perform linear, logistic, Poisson and Cox regression analysis with multiple variables
• Interpret coefficients of each regression model and summarize results
• Understand the assumptions and limitations of such models
• Communicate effectively with statistical practitioners on regression methods

STATISTICAL COMPUTING:

Statistical computing in this course will be done using R, a freely available, open source `clone’
of S-Plus, and can be downloaded for free at www.r-project.org. You may also use other
softwares (such as SAS, STATA, etc) although the amount of support we can offer for these may
be limited.

A set of introductory video tutorials for R can be found on my YouTube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/marinstatlectures

COURSE EVALUATION:

Assignments (3) 60%

Final Examination: 40%
* Must pass the final to pass the course

ASSIGNMENTS:

The assignments are designed to help students master the concepts presented in class and gain
experience in data analysis and interpretation. Students are encouraged to work together in teams
and discuss their ideas but you will likely find that you will learn the material most thoroughly by
first attempting to work out the solutions yourself. Each student is expected to submit his or her
own written solutions (prepared by himself/herself).

• Assignments should be neatly written (or typed). This is not a thesis, but it should still look like
something you are proud to have your name on. Some marks will be allocated to organization
and presentation of answers.

• Mathematical notation should be used carefully. Make sure your approach to a problem is
clearly outlined and explained.

• When preparing solutions related to data analysis, include only those parts of the computer
output that are relevant to your answer and highlight or underline the specific items of interest.
Alternatively, transcribe those items to another page if you prefer. Computer code used to
produce the results is not necessary to include with your assignment.

COURSE WEBSITE:

This is a distance learning course, so most material will appear on the course website. It is crucial
that you visit this website regularly as well as participate in on-line tutorials and discussion
forums. On the course website you will find a weekly schedule to help you keep on pace with
this course.

The course website can be found at: www.connect.ubc.ca (use CWL to login)

COURSE NOTES:

The course consists of a mix of reading through some notes provided online, as well as text book
chapters. It will be assumed that you have read through these prior to attending lectures, and to
bring a copy with you to class, if necessary. In our meetings, we will work through these and
expand on the ideas presented within. It will be useful for you to bring a laptop to lectures, as we
will often work through the ideas using software in lectures.

COURSE MODULES:

The course has been divided into three separate modules. The first discussing multiple linear
regression, the second discussing logistic regression, and the third and final module discussing
time-to-event data (Poisson and Cox regression). A set of notes will be provided for each. You
should be reading through each set of module notes prior to attending the face-to-face meetings.
The TA will also hold a few on-line tutorials for each module prior to the face-to-face meetings.
In each meeting we will review the module reviewed by yourself and the TA, prior to our
meeting.